


More Than A Memory

by FlynnItUp



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-13 03:02:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15354780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlynnItUp/pseuds/FlynnItUp
Summary: Ever since that fateful night in the Forgotten City, Cloud has been plagued with dreams about Aeris. Yet he finds comfort in the memory of her.





	More Than A Memory

The fireworks exploded overhead in a rain of colour. Blue, greens, pinks and purples. The sound radiated, sending shockwaves through the soul from ones feet to one’s mind. It reminded him on gunfire, the boom of ceremonial canons. But despite the noise, Cloud Strife was at peace. Across from him sat the prettiest young woman he had ever laid eyes on, her emerald green eyes shimmering in the low light whilst the explosion of colour made the pink of her dress change colours before his eyes. She was sweetness incarnate. Sunshine personified. She had such a calm demeanour that it immediately set him at ease. The moment he had met her in that ruined church as she had tended to her patch of flowers he had felt more at peace than he had ever done in his life. In that moment, albeit briefly, he had forgotten the guilt he was feeling about taking on Zack’s persona. 

But now as the fireworks exploded in those beautiful, colourful spark, her face seemed to shimmer before him like a reflection in a pool of water. And then it was gone, the fireworks too. No longer was he sat in the cable car at the Gold Saucer, facing Aeris Gainsborough. Instead he was in the Forgotten City, frozen in horror as she knelt there praying. 

She was at peace, her face a portrait of contemplation as her lips moved in a silent prayer. But then he was there, white hair flailing as he descended from above. The light glinted from the blade of his Masamune.

And then it was over.

A flash. A laugh. 

And so much blood.

In his sleep, Cloud twisted and turned beneath the sheets as he relived each and every painful moment of that day. She had been cruelly torn away from him thanks to that…thanks to that psychopath. All because he wanted to stop her getting the White Materia. All because he wanted to stop her from summoning Holy. Her life had been snatched away in a split second, her soul returned to the lifestream.

But even in death she had looked so peaceful. Despite the way her once bright green eyes had closed, devoid of life, she looked as if she were sleeping. And she could have been, were it not for the crimson blood staining her pink dress.

He cried out in his sleep then, tears staining his cheeks as he continued to toss and turn in the overly warm and still night. These dreams came to him nightly – they had done ever since that fateful night when Aeris had been so brutally murdered – and in truth he didn’t believe that he would ever get over it, no matter how much his friends wished for it. They had tried so hard to make him smile again, to make him fall in love with life once more. But it had all been in vain. In truth, it was just like Tifa said – he would rather seek comfort in a memory than in those close to him who were made up of flesh and blood.

Beads of sweat settled upon his brow as the scene shifted again. She was in his arms now, her body cold and heavy as he lowered her into the water. And then she was gone.

A memory. Just a memory.

And in his mind he could hear the cold, callous laughter of Sephiroth as the villain mocked him for his loss.


End file.
